First or Second Language Acquisition

Brian McMahon bmcmah at MEYOSP.MECON.AR
Tue Feb 6 21:38:50 UTC 1996


I teach English conversation to adults on a private basis.

One of my students asked me for advice on a problem. The couple has two
children, 3 1/2 and 1 1/2 years of age. They are living in Cordoba, a
large but, nevertheless, monocultural and monolingual city of one million
in central Argentina. They are with their American father all weekend,
every weekend but they have no contact with the English language.

The couple's goal is that both children reach native levels of
proficiency in both English and Spanish. However, they delayed the
introduction of English to the 3 1/2 year old child to English due to the
opinion of experts that simultaneously speaking both languages can delay
by up to one year a child's ability to form full sentences in one of
them.

The elder child has been speaking Spanish in full sentences for over one
year. The couple is now concerned that if he does not receive English
instruction on an accelerated basis, he may never achieve truly native or
first language proficiency.

Since Cordoba has no large expatriate communities, there are no
international schools where they can learn English alongside other
children who are native speakers. The city does have a few "bilingual"
schools where English is taught as a second language. Obviously, these
schools would be their only educational option. The teachers in these
schools are almost exclusively "locals" whose pronunciation leaves much
to be desired.

The couple has also found that the lack of English greatly inhibits
certain activities such as reading to the older child, storytelling,
songs and many other areas. With regard to long term concerns, the lack
of first language proficiency would have an unfavorable effect on
standardized test scores, such as the SATs.

1. Given the situation, would it be advisable to hire a private teacher
to accelerate his acquisition of English? If so, for how many hours per
week?
2. Given his environmental situation (contact with English only on
weekends, monocultural/monolingual location and home environment), is the
situation becoming urgent (i.e. that his exposure to English must be
accelerated immediately or he will never obtain native proficiency)?
Is there an age limit by which he must have attained a native level of
English or his acquisition of it will only be as a second language?
3. Undoubtedly, the best way for a small child to acquire a language is
through play. Would it be advisable to supplement "play English" with the
use of structured materials contained in a text. Are there any texts that
could be helpful? Are there any other sources of information on this
topic?
4. In the case of the younger child, who has begun to speak, would it be
better to introduce English now rather than wait? Is there general
agreement with the assertion that speaking English to her will delay her
ability to speak Spanish in full sentences?

Thanks for your help. I am greatly looking forward to the replies.

Brian McMahon, Consultant
bmcmah at meyosp.mecon.ar



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